Last night I got a fair bit of work done on the top bracing. The bridge plate and tone bars needed to be trimmed so that they fit against the X-braces. I am not entirely sure the correct way of doing this, because I've seen some stuff on the web where these parts are butted against the X-braces, and I've seen some that are notched into the X-braces. Which one is the correct way? I have no idea, but I decided to go with butting them against the X-brace, and my reasoning is that notches would weaken the X-braces, but if I have a good fit against the X-brace it would create a stronger joint. I could be totally wrong about this, so if anyone out there reading this is a luthier and you think I'm a complete moron, please be nice and understand I'm just starting off and learning as I go! ha ha I guess time will tell if I made the right decision!
The following picture shows the completed braces all fit together, and the pictures after that are some close-ups of each joint.
The following picture shows the completed braces all fit together, and the pictures after that are some close-ups of each joint.
Here is a picture of the bridge plate before and after. The top image shows how the angle of the bridge plate needed to be changed slightly to remove the gaps where it meets the X-braces. The bottom picture shows what it looked like after about 1/2 hour of filing and sanding. I also beveled the top edge of the plate.
This is a picture of the long tone bars (which go behind the bridge) where they fit against the X-braces. I used a razor saw to cut the angle on the pieces, then used files to fine tune the angle and to bevel the top edge slightly.
The following 2 pictures show the small tone bars fitting against the X-braces. I used a razor saw to trim the angle, then I thinned the end of the tone bars to approximately 3 mm thick. The drawing I used to make my template shows these braces to be around that thickness where they meet the X-brace so that's what I decided to go with. Then I used a file to fine tune the angle and bevel the top edge again.
It took me almost 2 hours to do all of this work. I don't know if that is good or if I am ridiculously slow! ha ha But I tried to take my time and get all these parts to fit well, which should hopefully give me the structural strenght for this guitar to stand up to the tension of strings when its finished. Now I just have to figure out how to clamp all these parts so I can glue them in place!